City of Thieves - Last Chapters

In this blog, you told me to write about the interesting things in this book or interesting points that I noticed in the last chapters.

These probably aren't going to be in order, but I'm sure you'll get the gist of it. 

"The Courtyard Hound"

• The book is, I think, Kolya's autobiography. We learn this on page 238 through 241. 
• The "courtyard hound" (the actual old dog in the courtyard) is, I believe, a metaphor for Kolya meeting Lev. When the hound comes up and then dies, it's such a big deal because "all these women come over to Radchenko's, constantly trying to get him to go outside with them, and he never does. It's almost like a game for them; they all want to be the first one to lure him out the gates, but none of them can make him go. Only the dog." (241)
• This is pretty significant because Radchenko is Kolya. The hound is Lev. And Lev is the first person that has made Kolya come out his reverie of only looking out for himself and caring for himself. 
• The building is his bad surroundings he's lived in forever and how he's only surrounded himself with artificial things and things he should want and hasn't left that world til Lev came.

Kolya Dying

• wow, no. not okay with this at all.
• when Kolya asks as he's dying about the title being Radchenko or The Courtyard Hound he's asking if he was self-centered and vain and superficial his whole life or if he did something good and adventurous like Radchenko with the hound. Lev tells him he did do things well.
• The last line about the, "it's not how I pictured it," really really killed me. that line...just. no.
• it's really heart breaking because it can be related in several ways:

1. (the first way) is the Big Fish (the movie) way where he expected to die in some grand, adventurous, cool manner and ended up with a normal death (the mundane-ness of it was the fact that he couldn't get to the hospital because of the train and he got shot after all this time because of his gun)
2. (or) the "I don't think I want to die, especially not like this" way. whereas before kolya was fearless
3. (or) the, "I see the afterlife, and I was wrong about it" way

I'm not sure which one is right, if any, and there could be more options, but this line is just heart breaking to me. 

Brutality

• the part where Vika kills the traitor in the night who ratted out Markov is showing just how much they value sticking to what is right instead of what is easy and it also maybe shows Vika did care a little bit about Markov, even if she claims she didn't
• The irony of Kolya getting shot in the butt because of his gun
• The Russian soldier in the group of prisoners who had no boots, just socks, and picked his spot, then did the mock Nazi salute
• The Einsatzkommando with the funny mustache: the brutality of the sorting and the cleverness of the trio to figure it out, and the (sexuality) strange hint that maybe he liked Kolya a little too much, and (racism) the part where the Einsatzkommando says that Lev might be a Jew and Kolya says something to the effect that he is later on but Lev says explicitly that Kolya didn't mean anything by it (he probably genuinely thought it was a compliment)
• The chess game: the stakes, the cutting off of fingers, the fact that Abendroth liked the game enough to keep Lev there even if he was a Jew
• The cruelty of the eggs at the end of the book (//slams fists into a wall in rage)

Quote I loved:

• "We ran for the forest, crashing through the stalks of wheat, beneath the rising moon and the stars spinning farther and farther away, alone beneath the godless sky." (233)

Miscellaneous

• Kolya finally poops! we know something crazy had happened. This means his adventure is over!! 
• The sexual subplot between Vika and Lev is resolved when Lev "becomes a man" with the knife fight/chess game. He finally is carrying a soldier's knife, not a looted Nazi souvenir. 

And I'd love to know your final thoughts on this book. I really love this book for so many reasons and I hope you thought it was a good read too. 

City of Thieves 10-18

Okay! I left my book at school but I absolutely have to do this tonight, so we'll see how this goes. I guess it doesn't really matter whether or not I have page numbers or direct quotes because you and I have different ways of reading.

On to the questions!

1. How is this novel serving as the seemingly modern trend to look at how humans react to traumatic situations? How is this an open and honest look at the suffering caused by war?

This novel is representing how humans deal with traumatic situations really well. Instead of showing people gloriously fighting battles and heroically dying for their country, it shows the truths about war. While the people were still sometimes ardently proud of their country (think Lev serving on top of the Kirov or Kolya fighting with the regular army), they were also experiencing horrible things day to day and having to find some normalcy in the situation. This book shows things like Vadim the dying boy with the chicken/rooster, which shows child death in war. Also in that scene, just the dead old man who forced his grandson to be there with him. The dead people on the Neva also was pretty horrifying. In addition to that, the cannibals and how Kolya and Lev sort of ignore them.This book is very open and honest because it shows all of these things, but then it also shows people coping. We have Sonya who helps whoever needs and with her darning egg. We also have Kolya and Lev's companionship and how they lean on each other. There's happiness even in the darkest of times. 

I also like your idea about propaganda. There is some propaganda in the book and they make fun of literally every single piece of it. This stamps out the idea that propaganda really does anything for the citizens of the country. It's for other people to look at and feel some kind of nationalism or patriotism. 

2. What sort of commentary is Benioff offering about the treatment of Jews and the prominence of racism?

Lev always seems very afraid and/or annoyed when Kolya brings up that he's Jewish to other people. However, Kolya is very open and kind of childish in that he doesn't understand how other people might take this information. While Kolya acts old and mature, he's actually very childish in a lot of aspects. Also, I love how he uses the nicknames "my little lion" and "my grumpy Israelite," and Lev is just like *grump grump* stop it kolya. Kolya is so offensive, but I feel like he doesn't really realize it and Lev isn't going to say anything. I would say also that Lev isn't going to say anything because he's kind of used to these kinds of names and people looking down on him, which is another aspect we can add to how he isn't/wasn't loved a lot through his life. 

Some of the racism is understandable in this setting, though. The Russians are obviously going to be wary of the Germans and vice versa. This means some prejudice and some racism. 

There's a lot of stuff to talk about with this, but I'm not sure in which direction to head. What did you think of this topic? 

3. Are there any other moments of homosexuality or companionship throughout the novel? How do these moments contrast the typically "manly" view of war? (yes, mr. lister, we can do the novel you want if you want)

There were some more moments! I noticed first of all, Vika says something about how the Kolya and her commanding officer were gonna "get it on" or something. And they all blow it off. And then later when they're all walking through the snow in the single file line at nine paces apart and Kolya and Lev start walking together and talking in whispers, Vika sneaks up behind them and suggests they *ehem* get a room. Seemingly all the talk of sex is directed towards Kolya. Also, I'm not sure if this is in chapter 18 or 19, but when they're sleeping on the floor of the house and Lev is describing how Kolya is like really close to him and won't leave him alone and is breathing in his ear and whatnot and then someone, again, I think, tells them to (politely) get a room. 

I really, really love your thought about "how do these moments contrast the typically "manly" view of war." That is so interesting. I read that and was like "oh my god, that is actually really cool." I think it kind of contrasts this manly view of war by saying that war isn't really manly at all. War shows you that it's not about the things you have or the people you know, it's about who's on your side and making connections. Being a civilian during a war is about trying to live without possessions, and instead with love. I think this could be the author's view being cleverly imposed on the story. Lev and Kolya display this so perfectly because they were both jerked out of their normal life and only given each other as a kind of safety net. They're, obviously, pretty dependent on each other by now and care pretty deeply about each other. Whether or not they think they do. 

I can't remember, but did Lev already figure out that Kolya was writing his own book? I just really love that scene. That scene and the whole scene where Lev is half-asleep/dead tired while they're trudging through the forest and Kolya is like "I'm right here, little lion. I'll hold you up." The latter had a kind of dream-like quality to it and I think it's probably, honestly, my favorite scene in the entire book. They are just really frank and honest with each other by that point and they depend on and trust so heavily in each other. so much companionship!!!

4. Eye color count and interesting information.

When they first meet Vika, Lev mentions her eye color actually a few times. I believe it says that they were brown. And then he says it again a little later. *hint hint wink wink*

I'm not sure if he says anyone else, but Vika does seem to be a little different for Lev. She's not an object like every other girl. She's a real, whole person. It's kind of funny because usually, I mean from an evolutionary standpoint, the boy would go for the pretty girl and he would be the protector. But with Lev and Vika, Lev is kind of looking for someone to protect him. And Vika is perfect for him in this respect. It's another reversal of roles that I think Benioff is really fond of. It could also be showing, again, how war isn't masculine or manly. 

I'm not sure I understand exactly what you mean by coming in for half of psychology and also on Monday? Here's what I got from that: you can come in on Friday for two periods, since it's a half day; you can come in during half of psychology on Thursday/or Monday (i don't know what you meant) and then if you came in Thursday, you would have a blog post due that Sunday (three days away the 10th) or if you came in Monday then that weekend (the 17th). I kind of have no idea what you mean there.